Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-05
A New Day Dawning.


There is a great future for the Black
Hills country and for the general noun
tain region of which it is a part. The
mineral Of this region have
not been generally appreciated until
within a comparatively recent period.
Indeed, even now there is in the coun-
try at large only a partial knowledge of
the possibilities of that empire of the
western mountains. Many have been
lead to believe that the silver mines
were about exhausted and to discredit
altogether the later reports regarding
other mineral resources, such, for
instance, as the tin deposits.
Perhaps misapprehension of the real
situation was natural or inevitable un-
der the circumstances. The original
rush ten years ago and more into the
Black Hills country was made under
conditions which rendered it impossible
to develop the mines of precious metals
in their fullest extent. The condition
Of transportation was not supplied.
Railroads had not then been supplied,
as they are now being supplied. The
character OF the ores, so far as precious
metals are concerned, was such as 10
require large capital and elaborate
mechanical appliances for their proper
reduction, which could not be accomp-
lished with the crude methods of the
~improvised camps of the early period.
Nevertheless these ores, in paying de-
grees of richness under proper manipu-
lation, do exist and are now known to
exist in i~nexhaustible quantity, aud
they offer a tempting prize to permanent
and adequate efforts of enterprise for
their development. This has been
abundantly proved as the result of thor
ough experience in those instances
where the requisite capital and skill
have been enlisted in the Black Hills
mines.
But while all this has been slowly
demonstrated by experience, there has
been supplied during the process other
facilities indispensable to a development
commensurate with the wonderful nat
ural resources of this region. Railroad
communication has within the past year
or two been rapidly extended toward
and into the Black Hills, and the next
few years will see practical completion
of the mea of transportation. This
fact makes available the results of ex-
perience slowly acquired, and will work
a transformation in the development of
the mines. Capital now has the basis
of certainty on which to work-cer-
tainty as to the vast measures of mineral
wealth and as to all the details Of util-
izing them, as we'll as the ultimate pro
fits. This is true now, or approximate
true, with regard not only to the preci-
GUS metals, but also to the deposits of
tin, coal, and the scores of other natural
treasures.
And already the situation is beginn ,ng
to assert itself notably. The powerful
companies now being organized in the
eastern states and in England to develop
the tin deposits are only the first abid-
ing evidences of a movement much
more comprehensive. What is trans
piring with reference to the tin deposits
is bound to happen with reference to
the whole circle Of the natural
of the Black Hills country, and, speak.
ing only of the mineral stores, the day
is not very distant when il will thus
become the seat of many-handed in
dustry and untold wealth of production.
sioux City Journal.